Teaching baby the importance of books

[colsy]

Now my 8-month-old used to LOVE us reading to him, and he actually understands the instruction 'turn the page'. Recently however he's started to get really bored part way through me reading to him, even if I spice up the story by pointing out different things in the pictures, or doing actions that go with the words. TBH mostly what he wants to do now is just eat the books! Books are really important to me, both for pleasure and for work, and I think learning to appreciate and look after books is something that should be taught to all children. And so I'm just a bit upset that suddenly my son doesn't seem very interested in them when previously he was. Do you reckon this is just 'one of those phases' and in a few days or weeks he'll go all literary on me again? Is this something that's happened with you?

While on the subject, how do others of you encourage your babies to turn paper pages gently? Our son is fine turning the pages of cardboard books, but with proper paper pages he's quite destructive and we have to hold the books away from him so he can't grab at them, especially if they're library books!

 

[Dream.A.Dream]

It could just be a phase. Edward is still tiny obviously, but I want him to be a reader to and I've already bought him around 50 books xx

 

[freckleonear]

Make it fun. If he's not enjoying it, just stop and do something else. One of Doman's key rules for enjoying reading is to stop before they want to stop. Aaron went through a phase like this, I think at certain points in their development there are just so many other things they want to be learning and doing.

 

[Rebaby]

I know where you're coming from with the eating of books! We have LOADS of books for Tobias, and he enjoys being read to and looking at the pictures but he is in such a "grabby" phase at the minute (Not just with books, but with people's clothes and faces!) that he is only happy if you let him hold the pages, and is reluctant to let go when it's time to turn the page (which makes it tricky to get on with the story obviously!)

I am not sure what the longer term answer is but i have resorted to only reading "sturdy" books to him right now as he tore the 1st page out of The Lion King a few days ago! I am hoping it's just a phase with them?

 

[Jetters]

At his age i'd keep the 'proper' books away from him and just give him hard/soft books to play with instead. I think their attention spans are so short around this stage that expecting him to sit nicely while you read is going to be quite hard. Maybe you could give him something else to play with to occupy his hands while you read to him??

 

[Lu28]

Aisling used to just eat the books so for a while I actually gave up reading to her. She gets bored really quickly now unless they're ones that have different textures (like the Usborne Books Thats not my series) or flaps etc. Basically to keep her attention, they have to be interactive.

She's very gentle at turning pages on the cardboard books but I imagine she'd be destructive with paper ones so I figure she's just too young for them at the moment. They're also not as interactive so we don't use them anyway.

 

[sahara]

As the others said really. Infact me 3 yr old wasn't interested in books for ages - but now she loves them

 

[Kte]

Sometimes I have Chloe sat on my knee and she plays with the cardboard ones, other times I read her a bedtime story when she is in bed - only if she is content in there which admittedly isn't often! She likes to listen to the tone of my voice more. I think it helps in a way. I love books and to read but I also have great memories of being read to as well as a kid. If he isn't into it I guess what others have said makes sence, not to force him or he will hate them. Just keep trying. Hope he gets back into being a little bookworm

 

[Kaites]

We have the same problem too- we've taken to making up our own abridged versions of her books for the moment so that it keeps her interest long enough for her to not eat everything and we switch up the books so that she doesn't learn the "fake" version of the book through repetition. Not as bad as it sounds- it's still giving her exposure to books and if we get stuck on one page while she death-grips the book, our little tale can continue i think I'm a little OCD about finishing books though, since it's harder for me than it is my hubby to go with the flow and do this.

 

[Dream.A.Dream]

This was me starting Edward young yesterday. I'd managed to lock us out the house so was trying to keep him entertained.

https://i299.photobucket.com/albums/mm313/katy_t89/21062010146.jpg

 

[Jetters]

Oh, and Colsy I just wanted to add that I totally understand and agree with why you want him to appreciate books! But I think at their tiny ages it's just too much. For my baby shower presents i've asked for people to bring their favourite childhood books, but i'm going to put them away on a shelf till he is old enough to get it. I REALLY want my boy to love books as much as I did and will be buying him LOTS and lots of them!!

xxx

 

[mommyof3co]

I've read to the boys since birth and they have all gone through phases where it was next to impossible to keep them focused on the story. That was Hayden up until recently really. I would just read for as long as he'd let me, try and keep him interested in the book by doing different voices, asking him to point out stuff in the pictures. Once he lost interest and I wasn't getting it back we just stopped the story and moved onto something else. Now we are doing this marble reward system with all 3 of the boys so if he sits and listens to an entire short story he gets a marble and that's really made him start wanting me to read to him again and him actually paying attention the entire time. But he's 2.5 that probably wouldn't work quite yet for yours

 

[dani_tinks]

We've read to Jacob since he was born and he loves a bed time story, we read to him everyday and he will sit and look at the pictures. He loves those books where he can feel the pictures with diff textures. He rarely fidgets or gets bored of them but we do keep the stories short . I bet he'll get bored of sitting still when hes got more to do though!!

 

[Maffie]

Noah has started to eat his books, he's not great at turning pages either he gets excited and scrunches them I have found books with textures inside he likes.

 

[lepaskilf]

he's got a whole childhood to get in to books, at 8months he is too little to understand the importance - And if you force it he may resent it when older!

 

[Lucy_lu_84]

We have phases, sometimes joshua will sit and let me read to him - but he never turns the pages when I tell him! lol And with paper books he's too rough!

he has a bunch of hard books though and more of the time he would rather sit on the floor and look thru them himself. Sometimes he sits for ten minutes flicking back and forward through a book. So i dont worry to much about not reading to him every day - cos i think he's learning an appreciation for books by playing with them. Hopefully when he's a bit older he will love to sit and have stories :